Category: The Great Perhaps

One video that caught my attention recently is this one, Trump getting onto a plane and abandoning his umbrella at the door. He makes no effort to fold it up, (he may not know how), he recognises it is too wide to get through the aeroplane door, so he simply drops it at the top …

It’s been more than two months since the fire broke out in Primark, in the heart of Belfast city centre. Royal Avenue remains closed off, with a number of local businesses still closed. Other nearby businesses have been affected; once positioned on a main thoroughfare, they’re now at the end of a cul-de-sac. Many are …

Belfast Cenotaph (at the side of the City Hall) is currently hosting an art installation of 3775 shrouded figures; the number of servicemen from the Ulster and Irish regiments who died in the Somme and have no known grave. This is the work of artist Rob Heard, who individually cut and stitched each shroud, to …

I left teaching at the end of June 2017, but my salary stopped at the end of August, so I see 1st September as a key date; last year I was sitting in Dobbie’s coffee shop thinking, ‘this is what the world looks like when you’re not in class…’ I’m going to blog this in two parts; …

The ‘We Deserve Better’ protests’ have come and gone. As I write, Northern Ireland has amassed 591 days without a government and there’s no sign of that changing any time soon. In the wake of reasonably well attended protests in 13 towns, here are 4 thoughts, in no particular order. Firstly, with the Belfast protest …

Pope Francis came, met, spoke softly and left. There have been plenty of column inches written and digital footage broadcast over last weekend. Lots of it has focussed not just on the visit, but on the cases of abuse, the church hierarchy’s response and the future of the Catholic church. Rightly so, these are hugely …

Recently I reviewed Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit. Creative ideas come from all sorts of places, very often emerging from whatever we are familiar with. This isn’t rocket science. A dancer is going to express his own emotional experience in movement. A writer is going to draw on her own life experience to invent …

This blog post first appeared on Slugger O'Toole on 20th July, 2018. For the record, I didn’t travel to London to protest at Trump’s visit to the UK. But when large scale protests are taking place literally within chanting distance of your hotel room, then I wasn’t going to miss the chance to join in. …

I'm searching for the right analogy. I not sure I'm there yet, but let's try camper vans... We're all on the camper van. The camper van is parked at the top of a hill, next to lots of other camper vans. Life hasn't been perfect. In fact, sometimes the hill top has felt a little …

Earlier this week Peter Firmin, the creator of Bagpuss and the Clangers, died at the age of 89. Although preferences change, Bagpuss has remained a well-loved character, once topping a poll as best loved children’s TV programme. Each programme began with a series of sepia photographs, and the introduction of a little girl named Emily …